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Since August all Belgians can now view new, high resolution aerial imagery of their country on Google Earth/Maps!

Last weekend Google released the data of Belgium, which were acquired in the spring of 2007 by Aerodata International Surveys and posted news about this on their Google Earth blog:http://bit.ly/9xIQc. This dataset replaces the older, lower resolution satellite imagery.

The imagery, at a ground sampling distance (GSD) of 40cm, is part of the complete 80 000 km² 2007 integral Benelux dataset.

Please see newsflash for more information.

Google Maps link:http://bit.ly/iMGva

Souce Aerodata Surveys

Information about scheduled events 2010

3rd International Conference

Advanced Space Technologies for the Humankind Prosperity (Space Technologies: present and future) under the aegis IAA

Organizers of Conference: Ukrainian Regional Division of IAA, Yuzhnoye SDO, SE PA Yuzhny Machine Building Plant, National Space Agency of Ukraine, Dnepropetrovsk National University

Start Date: April 20, 2011
End Date: April 22, 2011
Venue: Palace of Students, Shevchenko Park, Dnepropetrovsk, 49027, Ukraine
E-mail: info@dpukrconfiaa.org
http://www.dpukrconfiaa.org

For the first time, the conference Advanced Space Technologies for the Humankind Prosperity was held in Dnepropetrovsk in 2007

The conference proved to be a great success within scientific community of Ukraine, Russia and foreign countries, and found much publicized event. Informational messages, articles and interviews resuming the conference were published in some European editions, such as weekly magazine Acta Astronautica, information digests.

A decision supported by IAA was taken, on a regular (once every two years) holding International Rocket and Space Conference in Dnepropetrovsk.

The second Conference was held in 2009. More than 250 people from 13 countries were the participants.

More info at space@yuzhnoye.com

Events Autumn 2009


Start Date End Date Event Web Venue
21-sep-09 23-sep-09 ESRI Health GIS Conference web Nashville, USA
21-sep-09 25-sep-09 International Workshop on Presenting Spatial Information: Granularity, Relevance and Intergration (in cojunction with COSIT ’09 web Aber Wrac’h, France
21-sep-09 25-sep-09 2009 ICES Annual Science Conference web Berlin, Germany
21-sep-09 25-sep-09 2009 EUMETSAT Meteorological Conference web Bath, UK
21-sep-09 25-sep-09 OceanObs’09 web Venice, Italy
22-sep-09 24-sep-09 InterGeo web Karlsruhe, Germany
22-sep-09 24-sep-09 AGI GeoCommunity ’09 web Stratford-upon-Avon , UK
23-sep-09 24-sep-09 Russian Forum Energy Fresh 2009 web Moscow, Russia
23-sep-09 25-sep-09 Disaster Management 2009 web New Forest, UK
23-sep-09 26-sep-09 15th Ka and Broadband Communications, Navigation anfd Earth Observation Conference web Sardinia, Italy
26-sep-09 26-sep-09 Exhibition at European Researchers Night web Frascati, Italy
28-sep-09 29-sep-09 GeoImaging, Infoterra web Oxford, UK
28-sep-09 02-oct-09 2nd Advanced Training on Ocean Remote Sensing web Bergen, Norway
29-sep-09 30-sep-09 Forth European Security Research Conference (SRC09) web Stockholm, Sweden
29-sep-09 30-sep-09 DGI Central & Eastern Europe web Prague, Cz Republic
29-sep-09 02-oct-09 GIS Defence Asia-Pacific web Singapure, Asia
01-oct-09 02-oct-09 First Euro-Atlantic Stakeholder Conference web Stockholm, Sweden
01-oct-09 01-oct-09 60th anniversary of the Council of Europe, Strasbourg web Strasbourg, France
05-oct-09 08-oct-09 IXth International Scientific and Technical Conference “From imagery to map: digital photogrammetric technologies web Attica, Greece
05-oct-09 09-oct-09 5th WMO Symposium on Data Assimilation web Melburne, Australia
05-oct-09 09-oct-09 34th Conference on Radar Meteorology web Virginia, U.S.A
06-oct-09 08-oct-09 10th Austrian Geodetic Congress web Schladming, Austria
07-oct-09 08-oct-09 Energy Solutions Expo 2009 web London, UK
07-oct-09 09-oct-09 ESRI Latin American User Conference web Bogotá, Colombia
13-oct-09 13-oct-09 Environmental SIG Annual Conference web Nottingham, UK
14-oct-09 17-oct-09 The 7th International Oil and Gas Exploration, Production web Jakarta International, Indonesia
11-oct-09 14-oct-09 Electric & Gas User Group (EGUG) Conference web Atlanta, USA
12-oct-09 14-oct-09 Be Inspired: Infrastructure Best Practices Symposium and Awards web NC, U.S.A.
12-oct-09 16-oct-09 60th International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2009) web Daejeon, Korea
14-oct-09 16-oct-09 ESRI European User Conference web Vilnius, Lithuania
14-oct-09 17-oct-09 The 7th International Oil and Gas Exploration, Production web Jakarta, Indonesia
15-oct-09 16-oct-09 The ambitions of Europe in Space web Brussels, Belgium
18-oct-09 21-oct-09 GEO INT 2009 web Texas, USA
18-oct-09 21-oct-09 Pictometry FutureView 2009 web Lake Buena Vista, Florida, U.S.A.
19-oct-09 22-oct-09 7th FIG Regional Conference web Hanoi, Vietnam
20-oct-09 23-oct-09 FOSS4G conference web Sydney, Australia
23-oct-09 25-oct-09 GEOSS Workshop XXX-Disasters Management web Kampala, Uganda
26-oct-09 30-oct-09 Africa GIS 2009 web Kampala, Uganda
01-nov-09 31-nov-09 TBD-Launch of ESA’s SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) mission, together with the microsatellite Proba-2 web Plesetsk, Rusia
02-nov-09 02-nov-09 TBD- Launch of ESA’s Cryosat-2 mission web Plesetsk, Russia
03-nov-09 03-nov-09 eCognition User Meeting web Munich, Germany
03-nov-09 03-nov-09 Behaviour Monitoring and Interpretation (BMI’09) web Ghent, Belgium
03-nov-09 04-nov-09 2009 GIS for Oil & Gas Calgary Conference web Calgary, Canada
04-nov-09 05-nov-09 4th International Workshop on 3D Geo-Information web Ghent, Belgium
10-nov-09 12-nov-09 ACQUA ALTA web Hamburg, Germany
10-nov-09 12-nov-09 ESRI Middle East and North Africa User Conference web Manama, Bahrain
16-nov-09 19-nov-09 ASPRS/MAPPS 2009 Fall Conference web Florida, U.S.A.
16-nov-09 18-nov-09 GIS in Transit Conference “The Route to Success in Transit GIS web Texas, U.S.A.
18-nov-09 20-nov-09 Earth Observation and Water Cycle Science web Frascati, Italy
16-nov-09 20-nov-09 The 24th International Cartographic Conference web Santiago, Chile
25-nov-09 27-nov-09 Remote Sensing of Land Use and Land Cover web Bonn, Germany
30-nov-09 11-dec-09 COP 15’, United Nations Climate Change Conference web Copenhagen, Denmark
01-dec-09 03-dec-09 Earth From Space -the Most Effective Solutions web Vatutinki Center, Russia
01-dec-09 04-dec-09 Pacific Island Countries GIS&RS User Conference 2009 web Suva,Fiji
02-dec-09 03-dec-09 GIN Congress/Geo-Info Xchange 2009 web Utrech,The Netherlands
02-dec-09 04-dec-09 5th gvSIG Conference “We keep growing” web Valencia,Spain
07-dec-09 08-dec-09 Web & Wireless GIS, W2GIS 2009 web Maynooth, Ireland
07-dec-09 09-dec-09 Global Space Technology Forum web Dubai, U.A.E.
14-dec-09 14-dec-09 GEOSS Workshop XXXIII web San Francisco, U.S.A
16-dec-09 16-dec-09 ESINET (ESA Incubation Network) Technology Transfer Roadshow web Nottingham, UK
16-dec-09 20-dec-09 International Congres Geotunis 2009 web Tunis, Tunisia
17-jan-10 20-jan-10 GIS in Oil & Gas 2010 web Dubai, U.A.E.
18-jan-10 21-jan-10 DGI web London, UK
19-jan-10 21-jan-10 Map India 2010 DGI Europe 2010 web London, UK
02-feb-10 04-feb-10 Gi4DM web Torino, Italy
03-feb-10 05-feb-10 Imagina web Monaco, Monaco
04-feb-10 06-feb-10 SAT Expo Europe web Rome, Italy
08-feb-10 10-feb-10 SPAR 2010 web Texas, USA
10-feb-10 10-feb-10 EuroCOW 2010 web Barcelona, Spain
16-feb-10 18-feb-10 ISU´s 14th annual International Symposium “The Public face of space” web Strasburg, France
17-feb-10 19-feb-10 ESRI Federal User Conference web Washington D.C., U.S.A
21-feb-10 25-feb-10 2nd Annual GIS World 2010 web Dubai, United Arab Emirates
24-feb-10 25-feb-10 AIE 2010 web London,UK
03-mar-10 05-mar-10 The International LiDAR Mapping Forum 2010 – Tenth Anniversary Event! web Denver, U.S.A.
07-mar-10 10-mar-10 GEO 2010 web Bahrain, Bahrain
08-mar-10 11-mar-10 15th GIS Advanced Training Seminar in Munich web Munich, Germany
16-mar-10 18-mar-10 BASE – Business and a Sustainable Environment web London, UK
23-mar-10 26-mar-10 Fifth International Workshop on Geographical Analysis, Urban Modeling, Spatial Statistics web Fukuoka, Japan
24-mar-10 25-mar-10 GEO-10 The complete GEO Event web Coventry, UK
14-apr-10 16-apr-10 IV International conference web Moscow, Russia
20-apr-10 22-apr-10 Advanced Space Technologies for the Humankind Prosperity web Dnepropetrovsk,Ukraine
20-sep-10 23-sep-10 SPIE 2010 web Toulouse, France
01-nov-10 01-nov-10 Earth Observation Satellites web London, UK

TRE has gained a central position within the InSAR community worldwide thanks to its pioneer research in radar remote sensing and Earth observation satellites. The result is proprietary technologies, namely PSInSAR™, DespecKS™ and SqueeSAR™.

Tele-Rilevamento Europa – T.R.E. (TRE) was established in 2000 as the first spin-off company of the Politecnico di Milano _ technical university and is specialised in radar data processing to monitor surface deformation phenomena from space. TRE opened a subsidiary company in 2008, _TRE Canada Inc., in Vancouver (Canada), to service the North American market.

TRE, together with the research group at POLIMI, is now the largest group specialised in InSAR data processing activities worldwide. InSAR, or Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar, is a remote sensing technology that retrieves displacement information from radar imagery.

The company has more than 20 years of research in the field of radar remote sensing and Earth observation satellites, as well as a team of over 30 staff combining skills in Radar Signal Processing, GIS, Information Technology and Engineering Geology, all of them dedicated to InSAR.

During the last decade, POLIMI and TRE have developed cutting edge solutions to overcome some limitations inherent in conventional InSAR analyses. PSInSAR™, DespecKS™ and SqueeSAR™ are all proprietary technologies of TRE.

InSAR can provide high-quality, remotely sensed data about surface deformation.

It uses radar signals to generate images of the earth’s surface. Sensors mounted on satellites circumnavigate the globe on a N-S orbit. These sensors emit signals toward the Earth, some of which are scattered back towards the satellite. The returned signals are integrated to form radar scenes reflecting the surface profile of the earth. Specialist software analyses these images to detect and measure changes in the surface profile, such changes represent a deformation of some form. Satellites have been accumulating data since the early 1990s and, as a result, this technology is unique in providing a history of retroactive movement. The recent launch of new SAR sensors( including TerraSAR-X, ALOS PALSAR, Radarsat-2, Cosmo-SkyMed), with shorter revisiting time and an increased ground resolution, will guarantee for the future higher accuracy and faster monitoring of the deformation behaviour.

The use of radar sensors mounted on board Earth-orbiting satellites started about two decades ago. Over time, these early algorithms have been significantly upgraded and are today much more powerful.

One of these algorithms – the Permanent Scatterer (PS) technique (PSInSAR™), developed by the Politecnico di Milano, in 1999, is able to determine milimeter-scale displacements of features on the ground surface. Using the PS technique, it is possible to resolve surface motion of ~0.5 mm/yr on small-scale objects on the landscape, including individual targets or structures such as metallic structures, outcrops or features on buildings not previously recognised in traditional SAR interferometry.

Ten years after the launch of PSInSAR™ algorithm, TRE is ready to introduce a further advancement in InSAR, namely SqueeSAR™, which will provide extraordinary results also in non-urban areas.

Visualisation of displacement measurements is possible using several forms:
-Overlays on a digital orthophoto on a GIS,
-Overlays on an engineering drawing on a GIS,
-Overlays on a GoogleMaps™ platform and
-On-line through a website hosted by the service provider.

InSAR, PSInSAR™ and SqueeSAR™ provide a cost-effective tool for analysing and monitoring the territory with distinctive advantages:
-The analysis of large areas allows the identification and measurement of slow surface deformation phenomena, such as landslides, subsidence and seismic faults, largely used by public administrations to protect communities from the ravages of natural disasters.
-PS measurements can be used by oil&gas companies to monitor deformation occurring near and around drilling and storage areas, to determine environmental impact and for risk prevention. Radar data can highlight surface deformation phenomena remotely, with high precision and create datasets having a potential impact on reservoir operations. For CO2 sequestration, deformation in the material overlying a CO2 injection is related to pressure changes at depth, a key parameter in reservoir management.
-The ability of the technology to take measurements on a point by point basis allows the detection and measurement of individual building displacements. The benefit of this application within the field of civil and infrastructural engineering is in the design and monitoring of small to large areas of residential buildings, as well as the location and prevention of risk hazards in linear structures such as bridges, highways, pipelines and even electrical networks.
-The Insurance Industry can now count on a dependable tool to assess the risks and evaluate the cause-effect relationship in damages, either natural or man-made, over individual properties as well as large areas of the territory.

Nowadays a very promising application of radar data is the tracking of subsurface migration of CO2. Observations of the spatial patterns of vertical displacement can provide insight into the structural geology of a reservoir by highlighting the location of active faults or fractures.

A good example of such capability is given by the Carbon Capture & Storage project at In Salah, Algeria, where measurements of well-head samples and 3-D seismic techniques correlate well with PS data in tracking the CO2 plume(^).
The In Salah field is located in the Algerian central Sahara desert and was developed in July 2004 as a part of a joint venture with BP, Sonatrach and Statoil. Here CO2 is re-injected into the water leg of the In Salah Carboniferous Sandstone gas producing reservoir (about 20 m thick) via three horizontal wells at a depth of 1,900 meters.

An exploration 3D seismic survey was designed to image prospects in the Carboniferous and Devonian sequences rather than in the overburden, where quality is low. However for sequestration monitoring it is also fundamental to understand the structure and characteristics of the overlying section. Hence time lapse satellite images have been collected since the beginning of the injection process and were processed with the PSInSAR™ technique. The analysis has identified uplift around the injectors, while the production area has shown an interesting subsidence pattern. The PS analysis has also confirmed the CO2 is moving in the direction of preferred fracture orientation at reservoir level.

Figure: Ground deformation at Krechba field – 3 years of injection

In summary, integration of the 3D seismic cubes with the satellite image data has revealed some interesting trends and insights into the structures at In Salah: initial observations indicate that deep seated (below reservoir) faults may control the field structure at the Carboniferous injection level. Detailed analyses of the satellite images and their correlation with the seismic cubes has supported the interpretation that the most likely controlling mechanism for the observed displacements is the movement of CO2.

(^) Source: A. Mathieson et al. in SEG Las Vegas 2008 Annual Meeting.
See also: D. W. Vasco, A. Ferretti, and F. Novali. “Estimating permeability from quasi-static deformation: Temporal variations and arrival-time inversion”. GEOPHYSICS, VOL. 73, NO. 6 November-December 2008.

Tele-Rilevamento Europa T.R.E. Srl
Via Vittoria Colonna, 7
20149 Milano – Italy
Tel. +39.02.4343121
www.treuropa.com
TRE Canada Inc.
#550-409 Granville Street
Vancouver, BC V6C 1T2 – Canada
Tel. +1.604.331.2513
www.trecanada.com

eomag.eu_articles_986_TRE-20-years-of-interferometry

Definiens is Developing an Application Marketplace for Earth Sciences Professionals

Munich, Germany / Parsippany, New Jersey – Sept 22, 2009 – Definiens, the number one Enterprise Image Intelligence® company, today announced a new strategic direction for its Earth Sciences division. Definiens is building upon the success of its object-based image analysis (OBIA) platform to simplify the development and distribution of applications among its global user and partner community. The launch of Definiens’ newest software suite for Earth Sciences in late 2009 will also see the company reprise its widely-recognized brand name, eCognition.

Definiens was the first company to provide OBIA to the earth sciences market. The company’s mature image analysis software products, Definiens Developer and Definiens Architect, enable users to develop custom solutions that rapidly extract accurate geo-information from any kind of remote sensing data. Moving forward, Definiens and its partners will increasingly develop standardized applications for common remote sensing and mapping challenges. The company will also facilitate the commercial and non-profit distribution of third-party applications developed using Definiens software.

“Remote-sensing image analysis technology has come a long way, but the development of applications remains predominantly in the hands of experts, utilizing them locally,” said Ralph D. Humberg, Vice President, Earth Sciences at Definiens. “As the founder of OBIA for earth science professionals, we are excited to lead the industry into a new era; one in which users will independently and rapidly develop applications and then share these with colleagues and customers globally in online communities. Users will increasingly gain access to both Definiens-built and third-party commercial applications designed to solve mission-critical image analysis challenges across a wide array of industries.”

The recent launch of the Definiens eCognition Community website was the company’s first step toward fostering greater collaboration between its users. Definiens eCognition 8, to be released late in 2009, will incorporate functionality designed to make the software accessible to users without extensive software programming experience, promoting knowledge transfer and application development among Definiens Earth Sciences’ community. The new software will maintain Definiens’ easily transportable and modifiable ruleware and open-architecture, enabling the integration of industry standard platforms and imaging data from all modalities, while introducing a streamlined graphical user interface and pioneering new multidimensional and LIDAR capabilities.

“While informal exchange of rule sets between users has been the status quo for some time, we anticipate our upcoming products will enable the development of a true global marketplace for user-developed applications in the earth sciences,” continued Ralph D. Humberg. “Being the primary enabler of this marketplace will consolidate Definiens’ leadership in the industry while providing our users with additional avenues for monetization of their own applications.”

The new strategic direction for Definiens’ Earth Sciences division also sees the reintroduction of its eCognition brand. First utilized in the company’s introduction of OBIA to the earth sciences industry in 2001, the widely-recognized eCognition brand will be utilized broadly as the company leads the industry into an era of expanded image analysis capabilities and increased global collaboration.

For more information on the eCognition Community and Definiens’ leading image analysis software for earth sciences visit the company at the INTERGEO conference in Karlsruhe (Hall 4, Booth 4.626), or go to http://earth.definiens.com

Definiens will preview its latest software, eCognition 8, in two presentations at the INTERGEO Forum in room K1: Tuesday, September 22, “Neue Dimensionen der objektbasierten Bildanalyse” and Trend und Medienforum, dm-Arena (Halle 4): Wednesday, September 23, “eCognition 8 – taking object-based image analysis to new geo-dimensions.”

Definiens in Earth Sciences

Definiens enables organizations involved in Earth Sciences to quickly extract accurate geo-information from any kind of remote sensing data. The company assists data providers, value adders, scientists and end users in integrating earth observation and remote sensing data to generate accurate GIS-ready information. Definiens’ intelligent feature extraction capabilities accelerate mapping, change detection and object recognition – delivering standardized and reproducible image analysis results. Further information is available at http://earth.definiens.com

About Definiens

Definiens is the number one Enterprise Image Intelligence company for analyzing and interpreting images on every scale, from microscopic cell structures to satellite images. The Definiens Cognition Network Technology®, developed by Nobel laureate Prof. Gerd Binnig and his team, is an advanced and robust context-based technology designed to fulfill the image analysis requirements of the Medical, Life and Earth Sciences markets. The technology is modeled on the powerful human cognitive perception processes to extract intelligence from images. Definiens provides organizations with faster image analysis results, allowing deeper insights enabling better business decisions. The company is headquartered in Munich, Germany and has offices throughout the United States. Further information is available at www.definiens.com

Definiens, Definiens Cognition Network Technology, Definiens eCognition, Enterprise Image Intelligence and Understanding Images are trademarks or registered trademarks of Definiens

Press Contacts
Definiens
Eva Tietz
Manager Corporate Communications
etietz@definiens.com

Ricochet Public Relations
Garry Clark
Phone: +1 212.679.3300 ×114
gclark@ricochetpr.com

September 21, 2009 SPECIM, Spectral Imaging Ltd. (Oulu, Finland), a leading provider of Hyperspectral Imaging sensors and Airborne Technologies GmbH (Wiener Neustadt, Austria) have agreed about collaboration which aims at providing the airborne remote sensing market with turnkey multiple sensor platforms.

Specim’s role in the collaboration is to provide high performance hyperspectral sensors for the platforms. Spectral information is used to categorize and analyze target and its condition in great detail in growing range of applications, inluding environmental monitoring, forestry, farming, and geological surveys.

Airborne Technologies’s integrates hyperspectral imaging with other sensors, like a laser scanner and digital camera. Installation can take place on different kinds of platforms. Fusions of hyperspectral imaging with topographic information from the laser scanner is becoming a powerful technigue in forest mapping, land use and urban planning, and prompt monitoring of large scale natural disasters or guiding the rescue operations.

“Through this collaboration, SPECIM and Airborne Technologies can supply their customers with complete multi-sensor platforms, as well as training and support in their operation. The customer will be immediately ready for efficient data collection and application work” said Timo Hyvärinen, Managing Director of SPECIM.

About Airborne Technologies

Airborne Technologies has an extensive experience in integrating instrumentation in various aircrafts, and taking care of the required certification processes. Airborne Technologies also provides data collection and processing services by utilizing multisensor platforms. For more information please visit www.airbornetechnologies.at

or contact:

Mario Rathmanner
Chief Operating Officer
m.rathmanner@airbornetechnologies.at
phone +43 664 88453023

About SPECIM

SPECIM, Spectral Imaging Ltd, Finland, is a world leading manufacturer of innovative hyperspectral imaging instruments and technologies, known for their high performance and best value on the market.

SPECIM provides ImSpector imaging spectrographs, Spectral Cameras, and the SISU series of Hyperspectral Imaging Scanners to rapidly growing industrial and scientific clientele. These products are used in a broad range of demanding applications, like color inspection, chemical imaging, process analytical technologies (PAT), life sciences, forensics, security and military applications. SPECIM’s AISA series of airborne Hyperspectral sensors provides market leading remote sensing solutions, from small UAV systems to full featured commercial, research and military remote sensing tools. For more information, please visit www.specim.fi

or contact:

Dr. Katja Alanko-Huotari,
Product Manager,
katja.alanko-huotari@specim.fi
phone +358 10 4244 408

Mr. Harri Karppinen
Sales Coordinator
harri.karppinen@specim.fi
phone +358 10 4244 436

Over the last few months, Chelys has produced new mosaics using new and improved techniques such as SAR-sharpening, Orthorectification and Clouds and Shadows detection and removal.


The first mosaic is a MERIS reduced resolution mosaic of the world generated from over 2000 images collected between January and August 2008. The original products from the Envisat satellite were processed by the Chelys Satellite Rapid Response System (SRRS) and then projected by Chelys MOSRI. The strength of the Clouds and Shadows detection algorithm is its speed and capability for retrieving even the smallest area of valid pixel information from any cloud covered image.

http://www.eosnap.com/?page_id=2668

The detailed view of Italy in the second mosaic, also generated by MOSRI, was created using the Chelys SAR-Sharpening technique. This technique is similar to PAN-Sharpening in that it merges a high resolution image with lower resolution multispectral imagery; however, the high resolution image used by our SAR-Sharpening method is radar image instead of a panchromatic one. In this mosaic, the level of detail in the MERIS image (250m resolution) has been greatly enhanced by merging an ASAR mosaic with a resolution of 75m. The mosaic comprises ASAR images acquired from January to July 2009, and MERIS images captured between April and November 2008.http://www.eosnap.com/?page_id=2668
This image is an ASAR image mode medium resolution mosaic of Italy. The source images, acquired from January to July 2009, were generated from Envisat data using SRRS, then projected, orthorectified, merged through MOSRI. The Chelys orthorectification process corrects the geometric distortion created by SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) instruments, whose side-looking imaging mode has an angle much greater than that of the optical image, using a DEM (Digital Elevation Model) to make the slant to ground range conversion truer to the region’s actual topography. The process selects the proper DEM according to image resolution (3 arcseconds for this image), and performs in real-time, with the entire correction process taking less than 20 seconds per product. As a finishing touch, the banding effect common to the merging of various original radar images was also automatically eliminated by MOSRI.

http://www.eosnap.com/?page_id=2668

Envisat’s Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) acquires multi-spectral imagery of the Earth, and is used to monitor the state and evolution of the terrestrial vegetation cover. In particular, the MERIS Global Vegetation Index (MGVI), which corresponds to the Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR), is generated operationally as a standard level-2 product, using the radiation measured by MERIS over land surfaces. This bio-geophysical product plays a critical role in the plant photosynthetic process and is regularly used in diagnostic and predictive models to compute the primary productivity of the vegetation canopies. FAPAR has been established as a fundamental surface parameter by international organizations including the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), charged with providing data on the Earth’s climate system.

Chelys has developed a new processor that is able to process and directly extract the FAPAR index from level 0 reduced or full resolution (but also from level 1), generating the relative false-colored image just a few seconds after the original data is ingested.

In the next few weeks, a processor that will systematically generate these vegetation index images will be incorporated in the SRRS (Satellite Rapid Response System). As soon as enough images have been collected, it will be possible to generate mosaics as well.

More info at EOSNAP

SOURCE CHELYS

CHELYS srl
Via Erasmo Gattamelata, 3
00176 Rome – ITALY
Tel: +39 06 78 400 24
Fax: +39 06 62 275 199
Web: www.eosnap.com

Pcigeomatics.com news

PCI Geomatics Software Supports RapidEye Sensor

As the industry leader in supporting satellite sensors, PCI Geomatics has included support for RapidEye in its Geomatica 10.2.1 version release. RapidEye is a constellation of five sun-synchronous Earth Observation satellites which provide large area, multi-spectral images with frequent revisits in high resolution collecting multi-spectral data in 5 meter pixel size. RapidEye is the first commercial sensor which makes available the red-edge wavelength, useful for detecting changes in chlorophyll content, giving insight into vegetation health.

RapidEye is supported by the Satellite Ortho Suite in Geomatica 10.2.1, which is currently available from PCI Geomatics.

For more information, please visit: http://www.pcigeomatics.com/pressnews/2009_PCI_RapidEye.html

PCI Geomatics Announces New Upgrade to its Geomatica Software Including its Advanced SAR Polarimetry Workstation

PCI announced the availability of an upgrade to its remote sensing and image processing software. Geomatica® 10.2.1 is the latest version of the image-centric desktop software which provides users with additional satellite sensor support as well as new functionality for the SAR Polarimetric Workstation (SPW).Additional support for the high resolution X-band SAR imagery provided by TerraSAR-X is also included in this upgrade.

The SPW provides a complete set of tools and applications designed specifically for the processing and analysis of Polarimetric SAR (POLSAR) data, and version 2.1 is now available and compatible with Geomatica 10.2.1. This includes the Touzi Discriminators which make it easier to detect a particular target in a Polarimetric SAR image. The Touzi Decomposition introduces new parameters which remove certain ambiguities not previously understood and provide vastly superior results as compared to conventional algorithms. Additionally, the SPW now supports the following sensors: Radarsat-2, Cosmo Sky-Med and TeraSAR-X.

For more information, please visit: http://www.pcigeomatics.com/pressnews/2009_PCI_geomatica_upgrade.html

PCI Geomatics Hosts Exclusive Solutions Seminar in Brussels to Introduce its GeoImaging Accelerator Technology

PCI Geomatics held an exclusive seminar in Brussels on June 22 which featured news and information on PCI’s leading edge solutions technology, specifically, the new GeoImaging Accelerator (GXL) a solution for fast, reliable image processing. The GeoImaging Accelerator combines high-performance computing with PCI Geomatics expertise to provide a significant improvement in speed and efficiency.

For more information, visit: http://www.pcigeomatics.com/pdfs/GXL_Flyer_English.pdf

Election of new chairs and vice-chairs in environment and security related committees

The European Parliament is the only directly-elected body of the European Union. The 736 Members of the European Parliament are there to represent you, the citizen. They are elected once every five years by voters right across the 27 Member States of the European Union on behalf of its 492 million citizens.

Election of new chairs and vice-chairs in environment and security related committees. On 16 July twelve European Parliament’s committees elected their new chairs and vice-chairs.

These include the “Environment, Public Health and Food Safety” committee (responsible for climate change) and the “Industry, Research and Energy” committee (responsible for space policy), as well as other committees relevant to GMES applications (Agriculture, Fisheries, Security and defence).

The name of chairs and vice-chairs are available at

European Parliament

Further info

Members of Parliament, MEP´s

New distribution channels bring industry leading software products for understanding imagery and complex data to a wider base of users.

Boulder, CO – July 6, 2009 – ITT Visual Information Solutions (ITT VIS), a wholly owned subsidiary of ITT Corporation, (NYSE: ITT), announced the signing of international distribution agreements with six independent companies, covering fourteen countries worldwide, for its leading image processing software solution, ENVI. Under these authorized distribution agreements, key distributors of ESRI® ArcGIS® software products will now make the ENVI family of image processing and analysis software products available to their customers. The agreement helps a growing number of professionals get information from geospatial imagery and integrate it with their GIS applications in a variety of industries, including environmental monitoring, urban planning, defense and intelligence, oil and gas, and agriculture.

“We are pleased to welcome this group of highly respected partners to our global team,” said Richard Cooke, President of ITT Visual Information Solutions. “Each of these distributors offers integrated geographic and geospatial solutions based on ESRI’s ArcGIS products, to a well-established customer base, and we are eager to help them meet the growing demand of GIS professionals worldwide for integrated image processing and geospatial information solutions.”

The companies signed to distribute ENVI products in their geographic areas are:
ESRI Romania – Romania
ESRI Spain – Spain
GISDATA Group – Croatia, Hungary, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo
ESRI Bulgaria Ltd. – Bulgaria
• QS4IT – Egypt
• Geodata AS – Norway

In addition to the newly signed ENVI agreements, ITT Visual Information Solutions also entered into international distribution agreements with three independent companies in Europe to sell IDL, ITT’s computing environment for data visualization and analysis. Under the distribution agreements, the new distributors will make IDL’s modern, interactive data visualization and analysis capabilities available to professionals in their regions who need to extract meaningful information from complex data.

The new companies signed as IDL distributors are:
• Softbooks s.c. – Poland
• Inforest Research – Greece
• Jeodijital – Turkey

For more information about ENVI, visit www.ittvis.com/ProductServices/ENVI.aspx.

For more information about IDL and ENVI, visit www.ittvis.com/ProductsServices.apsx.

About ITT Visual Information Solutions

ITT Visual Information Solutions of Boulder Colorado, a wholly owned subsidiary of ITT Corporation, provides integrated software solutions that help scientists, engineers, researchers, and medical professionals turn complex data into useful information. The company’s 150,000 customers from more than 80 countries use IDL, ENVI and IAS to analyze data and imagery and deploy imaging applications. ITT Visual Information Solutions’ products are used in a variety of industries, including remote sensing, engineering, earth sciences, aerospace, defense and intelligence, medical imaging, oil and gas exploration and biotechnology. Combined with a host of support services including training, consulting and technical support, ITT Visual Information Solutions offers the most complete data visualization, image analysis and image delivery solutions available. For more information visit:www.ittvis.com

About ITT Corporation

ITT Corporation is a high-technology engineering and manufacturing company operating on all seven continents in three vital markets: water and fluids management, global defense and security, and motion and flow control. With a heritage of innovation, ITT partners with its customers to deliver extraordinary solutions that create more livable environments, provide protection and safety and connect our world. Headquartered in White Plains, N.Y., the company generated 2008 sales of $11.7 billion. www.itt.com.

© 2009 ITT Visual Information Solutions

ITT Corporation
Visual Information Solutions
4990 Pearl East Circle
Boulder, CO 80301
Phone: 303-786-9900
Lori Thompson
303-402-4664
lthompson@ittvis.com